Passo dell'Aprica

Passo dell'Aprica
	Pass summit, view to the west
Pass height	1176 m slm
expansion	Strada Statale 39 del Passo di Aprica
Mountains	Sobretta-Gavia-Gruppe , Bergamasque Alps
	profile
	map
Coordinates	46 ° 9 '11 " N , 10 ° 8' 56" E Coordinates: 46 ° 9 '11 " N , 10 ° 8' 56" E

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The flat saddle of the 1176 m high Passo dell'Aprica is an important and old transition from the Valtellina to Valcamonica . The town of Aprica, named after the pass, is located directly to the east of the pass .

Venetian trade

Since the Valtellina was always in the shadow of neighboring areas, the Apricapass was also a rather unimportant pass, it only received its appreciation when Venice also became a continental power at the end of the Middle Ages and advanced to its fore. From now on it was important for Venice, especially in times of war, not to use the Tyrolean passports, but their own, which led into the Bündner Land. It was not for nothing that the people of Graubünden extended their power to the Valtellina. The old mule track was converted into a driveway as early as the late Middle Ages . From now on the traffic over the Aprica could increase and see its bloom, which did not last long. With the beginning of modern times, the power and influence of Venice steadily declined, and the Aprica was also affected, which declined more and more.

The French set up a courier service between Chur and Venice across the Aprica in 1548 to safely bypass hostile Spanish-Habsburg lands. During this time, a contract was signed between Venice and Graubünden to rebuild the mule track over the Aprica, but only Venice could actually finance this and built a road from its side up to the Aprica. The continuation of this road was only the old mule track, which was also called the street and was at least maintained. But in the meantime other pass routes had received better improvements, and so the main part of the north-south traffic shifted to the Gavia - or San Marco Pass . The neighboring communities tried to prevent this politically motivated decline by repeatedly expanding the path, but the trade was no longer interested in the Aprica. It was not until the 18th century that there was renewed interest, but it could not regain its former importance.

Surname

As the Italian Giovanni da Lezzo explained, the Apricapass was originally called “Montagna di Camuzone”. A small settlement soon arose around the church of Sankt Peter, which still belonged to the Valtellina. However, the border line was controversial, so that on September 25, 1572, a meeting of those concerned took place, at which the exact border was drawn. At that time the Apricapass was also called “St. Peter ”, but also“ Auriga ”or“ Abriga ”, this name came from the north side of the crossing, which was called“ Zapelli d'Aruriga ”. Here the path led over dangerous steps and slabs on a longer route along the rocks there. After all, it was still so well developed around 1600 that it could also be used with riding and pack horses.

On the way to modern times

In the 1970s and 1980s, an expressway connection was planned that should cross under the Apricapass with a tunnel. It was to connect the Maloja or Stilfser Joch expressway , which was also being planned at the time, with the Valcamonica . Since none of these projects has been implemented so far, there was hardly any reason to build an aprica tunnel. Before that, at the end of the 19th century, a railway project was planned on the Aprica, a narrow-gauge railway that would connect Tirano , at the end of a Bernina railway that was then still to be built , directly to Trento via the Tonale Pass . With further narrow-gauge railways planned at the time over the Maloja, Ofenpass and the Inn Valley , in conjunction with the also narrow-gauge Rhaetian Railway in Graubünden, a large and efficient narrow-gauge network would have been created that would certainly have served the economic and tourist interests of this central and yet otherwise rather remote region to this day .

Today there is a winter sports area on the Passo dell'Aprica .

Individual evidence

↑ Steffan Bruns: Alpine passes - history of the alpine pass crossings. From the Inn to Lake Garda . 1st edition. tape 3 . L. Staackmann Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-88675-273-7 , p. 105 .
↑ passoaprica.it

[1] Steffan Bruns: Alpine passes - history of the alpine pass crossings. From the Inn to Lake Garda . 1st edition. tape 3 . L. Staackmann Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-88675-273-7 , p. 105 .

[2] ssoaprica.it